In accepting Theresa May’s offer, Jeremy Corbyn is the one acting like the prime minister

In accepting Theresa May’s offer for talks on 2 April, Jeremy Corbyn has proven he’s acting like the real UK prime minister.
It’s a bit rich
May, meanwhile, has spent over two years sidelining parliament. She tried to force through her deal three times, only to suffer huge governmental defeats. Instead of taking no deal off the table, the Conservative leader consistently weaponised the threat. Even now it’s unclear if she is willing to move significantly away from her red lines.
By contrast, Corbyn has always tried to compromise on Brexit. Labour’s longstanding proposal tried to honour the Good Friday Agreement through a customs union and single market alignment. Indeed, the solution Labour offered garnered favourable responses from the EU. The European parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator said Labour’s “cross-party cooperation is the way forward” back in February. And Corbyn’s aim to compromise has only increased over time. Take the second round of indicative votes, where Labour backed both soft Brexit motions and the one calling for a confirmatory vote on any Brexit deal.
Please, Mr Corbyn
Then there’s the Conservative Party. In the second round of indicative votes, Tory MPs overwhelmingly voted down every compromise, pushing us closer towards no deal. That came after May suffered yet another humiliating defeat. Parliament thwarted May’s attempt to stop the indicative votes even happening by 45 votes.
Now, May has succumbed to essentially begging the leader of the opposition for help. But May’s offer for talks rings hollow when she’s ignored almost everyone except her closest advisers throughout the Brexit process. May only asked opposition leaders to get involved on 17 January 2019. Still, she refused to change her red lines, reducing that meeting to a pointless showboating exercise. On top of that, the prime minister only phoned the leaders of the two largest unions on 10 January. These are not the actions of a prime minister who ever wanted to build a genuine consensus.
In stark contrast, Corbyn ‘reached out’ to May in his Labour conference speech in September 2018, outlining the type of soft Brexit he thinks can pass through parliament. Seven months later and May appears to be finally turning around to what Corbyn has said all along.
Through trying to mediate between parliament’s opposing positions, Corbyn has acted like a true statesman. Whereas May has only played playground politics to try and force through her disastrous deal. She should have resigned long ago.
Read on...
Support us and go ad-freeFeatured image via Wikimedia – Rwendland / Flickr – Tiocfaidh_ar_la_1916
Support us and go ad-freeWe know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
This is the truth of it and has been all along. May is morally and intellectually bankrupt and has no idea what to do about this mess now. The EU has made it very clear that 12th April 2019 without Parliamentary approval is the latest date. May and her stupid little playground games has already ruined this country. My goodness much was made in the MSM about the Labour resignations but she is now into record numbers in her own Party.
What should have been a straight forward, negotiated process has become a monumental chronic mess at the hands of a corrupt Prime Minister and the Tory Party. They went into negotiations without any sort of Plan, without even understanding what was being negotiated, Bojo, Davies and the other negotiator spent more time demanding the EU cave into the UK’s demands than negotiations (which is a two way process of give and take). Bojo routinely and frequently insulted, denigrated and threatened EU negotiators rather than doing what was expected of the negotiating team – which was just that – to negotiate an orderly and planned withdrawal from the EU. Therefore seriously ignorant MPs agreed nothing over a 2 year period. Followed then by May (thinking she is a Dictator not a Prime Minister) by passed Parliament and her Cabinet and signed a really rotten poor deal with the EU and then has spent the rest of the time trying to blackmail MPs. She should have resigned before Christmas but the truth is, this is all about the prevention of a General Election which would decimate the Tory Party. That’s all this is about – May putting her Party first and avoiding a General Election. No more no less. At least Corbyn has the nation’s interests at the centre of his focus, May just has a pathetic corrupt Party and a nil points for calling a General Election.
Corbyn is a serious minded politician and has a long and sustained career as such. He understands the issues perfectly and has solutions to them which are highly commended by the EU. I cannot understand how the most rabid of Brexiteers can endorse a No Deal. Apparently a Government report has been leaked as to what a serious cost to the UK a No Deal would be economically.
Corbyn has the heart of a lion and the soul of a warrior. He has withstood a sustained MSM campaign against him which is vicious, abusive, malicious and based on lies and misinformation. This Government paid over £1m to Integrity Initiative to run a smear campaign against him and Israeli Government officials were caught on video offering Joan Ryan (Labour MP) a £1m bribe to do the same which she duly did.
I say a socialist democratic Government focussing on wealth redistribution, reducing poverty, improving public services, renationalising some key services with an excellent Green Policy is just what this country needs – good old fashioned Keynsian economics.
Thank goodness for Corbyn and Labour. I hope he will come out with Labour’s deal . One thing they could do if they can’t agree is put Labour’s deal against her deal and remain in another referendum then the leavers would have two choices